News

Seminar reflects on lessons learned from Diabetes Partnership Program

02 Mar 2016

The Aging, Community and Health Research Unit at McMaster’s School of Nursing helps older adults who have multiple chronic medical conditions age in their homes as well as possible, and also supports their family caregivers.

To achieve this, the unit develops, adapts, implements and evaluates complex nursing and health care interventions in homes and community care settings across Canada. The unit’s co-scientific directors, Jenny Ploeg and Maureen Markle-Reid, will present a CHEPA seminar on March 16 that details the lessons learned from The Diabetes Partnership Program, a pragmatic randomized controlled trial in Ontario and Alberta that evaluated one such complex intervention.

The seminar, Developing, adapting, and evaluating complex nursing and health care interventions: Lessons learned from the Diabetes Partnership Program in home and community care settings in Canada, will be held on Wed. March 16 in the Communications Research Lab (CRL) B119, from 12:30 p.m. to 1.30 p.m. All are welcome. The seminar will be available remotely for those unable to attend.

Ploeg, a Professor in McMasters Faculty of Nursing, holds a PhD in nursing from the University of Toronto.

Their research interests focus on health services research related to older adults with multiple chronic conditions, economic evaluation of complex interventions, patient and caregiver engagement strategies, and collaborative research approaches.

In 2013, Markle-Reid, Ploeg, and an interdisciplinary research team of investigators, clinicians, trainees and collaborators from across Canada, were awarded a combined $5.8 million to fund the new Aging, Community and Health Research Unit (ACHRU).

The research program will receive $2.5 million over 5 years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and $3.3 million over three years from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to develop and evaluate innovative, community-based primary health care interventions to promote optimal aging at home for older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) and to support their family caregivers.

Seven interrelated studies set in Ontario and Alberta use quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods designs to target seniors with MCC who have dementia, Type 2 diabetes and/or stroke. An integrated knowledge translation strategy, with five knowledge exchange events, will share study results with key stakeholders and implement successful programs more widely.